Page 63 of The Kissing Booth
‘To find Noah,’ I snapped, loud enough for them to hear me. I stormed off to where Noah usually parked: in the far corner of the lot, under the big tree. And sure enough, there were the telltale signs he was there – freshmen girls giggling over him and trying to hide behind other cars; others lounging on their cars and trying to catch Flynn’s eye; and the drifting smoke.
I stormed over to the lazy figures around the tree. There were a couple of stoner kids huddled under one tree, some huge guys off the wrestling team under another. Noah had a cigarette sticking out of his mouth right now, and was leaning against a massive sycamore tree. He was doing something on his phone, looking busy and bored all at once.
It was always hard to pin down Noah’s friends. He’d hang around with the guys on the football team, or he might be with guys from his classes. He was a bit of a drifter though. Not a loner or an outcast, but he wasn’t friends with practically everybody like Lee and me either. He was probably a little too intimidating for that.
‘Noah!’ I yelled, ignoring the glares and astonished stares – from both girls spying on Noah, and from the mass of people who wondered what the hell I was doing.
He looked up and, seeing how angry I was, heaved himself away from the tree.
‘I cannot believe you!’ I shouted at him.
He strolled up to me, dropping his cigarette in the progress and stomping it out under the black boots he usually wore. He slid his phone into his back pocket.
‘What?’ he said innocently.
I shoved him in the chest as hard as I could over and over, one shove for every word: ‘You – broke – his – rib!’
‘What are you on about?’
My shoving had no effect whatsoever on Noah’s muscly body, but I could tell it was getting on his nerves a little. Like a fly buzzing around your head.
‘Patrick! Everyone’s saying you broke his rib! He had to go to hospital!’
Noah smirked. He didn’t even raise his eyebrows or look remotely guilty. He just smirked a little. ‘Yeah, I heard about that.’
‘He could press charges,’ I hissed.
‘Yeah, but we both know he won’t.’
‘He didn’t evendoanything! And you don’t have to look so happy about it!’ I yelled, shoving him again. ‘You broke his rib – for no reason!’
‘The hell I did!’ he yelled back. ‘The guy was all over you. Anyone could see you were trying to push him off.’
‘He wasdrunk!’
‘I don’t care if he was drunk, high, or just twisted,’ Noah said, all up in my face. ‘I’m looking out for you here, Rochelle, and the guy deserved what he got.’
‘A broken rib? He probably won’t be able to play soccer for weeks now!’
‘Then he shouldn’t have tried anything with you,’ Noah said firmly. ‘If he got his rib broken, that’s not my problem. Why do you even care?’
‘You hurt him over something stupid! You – you stupid violence junkie!’
I punched his chest with both hands, and Noah caught my wrists tightly. I glared at him and tried to snatch my hands back, but I couldn’t; his hold was too tight.
We’d gathered quite an audience with all the yelling.
Someone pulled gently on my shoulder. ‘Shelly, come on,’ Lee said quietly. ‘Just calm down.Bothof you.’
Noah rolled his eyes at him.
‘Calm down?’ I exclaimed to Lee. ‘Your brother beat up someone over a drunken mistake andbroke his rib! How can you not see there’s something wrong with that?’
‘I didn’t say there was nothing wrong with it,’ he said calmly. ‘But calm down about it.’
I clenched my jaw before realizing Lee was right, as usual. I yanked my hands away from Noah, and this time he let go. I didn’t quit my glaring match with him though.
‘I cannot believe you,’ I said.
